Sun launches pay per use grid computing

Claiming a ‘one size fits all’ solution, Sun Microsystems has expanded its original brand message of ‘The Network is the Computer’ by announcing that users can now access grids of secure compute power as easily as buying phone services. It’s an extension of the company’s N1 Grid programme, with pay-for-use pricing starting at $1/CPU per hour, with grid cycles purchased in packs of hours. The system will initially target non-transactional workloads, like simulations, modelling and rendering. Sun will also work with partners on a wholesale basis to take its capability to different industries and geographies, bringing combinations of the Solaris OS, with security and virtualisation based on AMD Opteron and Sparc microprocessors. The firm claims that with its new service, “powerful resources are now available to any customer seeking affordable, no-risk computing on an on-demand basis without ownership or onerous outsourcing contracts. “We are staking out new ground – taking our intellectual property and turning it into pay-for-use network services,” says Jonathan Schwartz, president and COO at Sun. “To date, the world has taken IT infrastructure and mapped it to customer workloads. This reverses that to give customers an opportunity to leverage dramatically lower shared services costs to which they will map their workloads.”